Category Archives: Opinion

Two and a half years ago I put this site up to promote my work as an “Aviation & Space Writer.” But, as you can see on this site, focus moves, changes, and grows. During the last few months, I’ve come to realize I’m more of a commentator than a reporter. The facts are important—especially crucial in aviation—but I’m more interested in what higher perspectives mean, what we see and learn from our real and virtual aerial views. So here’s a summary of my current projects:read more ...

After 17 years flying the Amazon jungle and Andes mountains, I came to my first AirVenture at Oshkosh, Wisconsin. Before first day opening, I flashed my Exhibitor badge at the dutiful guards and walked through the AirVenture gate. Thirty years of professional aviation experience provided no preparation for what I beheld. Without turning my head I saw three times more aircraft than occupied the entire civil registry of the country where I served.

As a pilot and air ops manager, who knew I needed an aviation fix? Like a starving man no longer feeling hunger pangs, I didn’t know what I needed until I immersed myself into the world of cold 2024 aluminum skin, taut cotton wings, red hydraulic fluid, flashing glass panels, spinning propellors, and clouds of 100 octane exhaust fumes—ambrosia and incense.read more ...

You probably noticed the change. This site sports a new masthead, revised page structure, and most importantly, a sharpened focus. I realized, for a freelance writer’s site, I was trying to be all things to all people. Sounds nice. Doesn’t work out so well in real life.

I write because I believe, as all writers do, I have something to say worth reading. To do that, I have to connect with people. But people aren’t created in general, a nameless mass driven by blind instinct. People are created one at a time as individuals, each unique as snowflakes. And that’s where I have to connect.read more ...